The Least Of These
by Unoriginality
Summary: Loki learns that grief is a sign of strength. (Set when the boys are the Asgardian equivlanet of early teenagers.)


Loki liked to walk along the river banks in winter, studying patterns in ice and the way his booted feet left a distinctive trail behind him, the way he could make whatever tracks he wanted by manipulating how he walked and where he stepped.

"Brother, wait up!"

Loki stopped midstep and half-turned, looking behind him. His brother, bundled in more furs than Loki was, hopped from step to step of Loki's footprints until he'd caught up with him. "What're you doing down here?" Thor asked, pulling a scarf of fur up over his nose. "It's too cold to be out by the ice."

"Maybe for you," Loki said, turning back and taking as wide and long steps as possible as he resumed walking. "But you know I like the cold."

"You're strange that way," Thor said in some sort of agreement as he followed Loki's footsteps, barely reaching the wide steps Loki had taken to plant his feet in Loki's footprints.

"And heat makes me ill," Loki argued. "I think liking something that idoesn't/i make me sick is hardly strange. If you're cold, go home."

"And leave you here to brood?" Thor demanded, finally hopping over next to Loki and walking beside him normally.

Loki stopped and looked at him. "I am not brooding. I'm enjoying weather I find preferrable." He continued walking in a normal fashion this time. "And this way, you cannot push me into the water just to save me drowning."

"Brother, be fair," Thor protested. "I only did that once, and I didn't know you couldn't swim."

"How can you not know I don't know how to swim?" Loki asked, watching the way the snow crunched underfoot. "You are with me nearly at all times. When would I have learned to swim? When you weren't looking?"

"Do we really have to have this argument again?" Thor asked tiredly. "I was wrong, and I apologized, and you got me back later. Be glad I do not shove you out onto the ice."

Loki paused again in his steps, looking around. He could've sworn he'd heard a noise that didn't belong in the cold morning still. A small animal, it sounded like.

"Brother?" Thor leaned over Loki's shoulder, looking in the same general direction Loki was. Loki held up a hand, shushing his brother, then followed the sounds closer to the base of the Rainbow Road's bridge they were approaching. Thor followed, not entirely silently, again trying to get his brother's attention.

"Quiet, Thor," Loki snapped. "I hear something. You're making it hard to track."

Thor sighed. "Brother, you need to stop chasing things. Honestly, you're part animal."

Loki gave him a sour look. "I am not either," he said, then crept forward, under one of the supports, searching where snow had not touched.

In the mud was a dirty little kitten, mewing pitfully. It seemed hurt, or perhaps sick, or perhaps just freezing in the cold. Loki crouched next to it, taking off his coat and wrapping it around the tiny animal, lifting it up against him. The kitten cried more, weakly trying to burrow into the fur of Loki's cloak.

Thor came up behind Loki. "It looks like it's sick," he said, studying the tiny ball of fluff in Loki's cloak.

"Probably from the cold," Loki said, hefting his coat up into his arms to cradle the kitten. "I'm going back in with it, see if a warmer environment won't help."

Thor followed him as Loki began walking back to the palace. "Are you sure Father will let you keep a pet?" he asked.

"I'll ask Mother first," Loki said. "She can talk him into it."

Thor gave him a disapproving look. "Someday, you have to stop hiding behind Mother's skirts, Loki."

Loki shot him an annoyed look. "And you have to stop hiding behind Father's cape."

"I do not!"

Loki didn't listen to him, hurrying his steps as the kitten's cries became quieter. "Don't you die on me," he whispered. "That'd be very inconsiderate of you." He hurried back into the palace, heading to the outer rooms to his and Thor's bedrooms. "Brother, go get Mother," he said to Thor, who was still following him.

Thor spun around mid-step and ran off to find their mother while Loki settled his fur cloak down on the floor near the fireplace, trying to make a comfortable bed for the kitten as he gingerly handled the tiny animal, settling it in the middle. "That should warm you up," he said quietly.

The kitten looked very sick, half-drowned and shivering, but how much of that was from the cold it'd been in previously was hard to say. Its eyes were squeezed shut with a thin layer of crust over them. Its meows sounded weak. Loki hoped it was just cold and would be better with some warm milk and a warm place to recover.

"Loki?" His mother's voice accompanied the sound of his front room's door opening. Loki looked up to see his mother and Thor entering the room. "Oh, Loki, what did you find this time?" she asked, stepping over by him and crouching down.

"A cat," Loki said. "She doesn't look to be doing very well."

Frigga gently handled the kitten, which protested being removed from it's warm and furry spot with a weak-sounding meow. "It's so thin. I'd say it's very young." She turned to one of her ladies in waiting that had followed her faithfully. "Go to the kitchens, tell them I request a small bottle of warm milk at the boys' rooms."

While the lady in waiting bowed and left, Loki looked up at his mother. "Is she sick?"

"I can't tell, Loki," Frigga said gently. "We'll do our best to take care of her, though."

* * *

"Brother?"

Loki jerked awake, looking around blearily. Thor was crouched near him, looking at him in worry. Loki sat up from his spot on the floor next to the bundle of furs the kitten was nearly lost in. "What is it?"

Thor glanced at the fire. "You fell asleep out here?"

Loki rubbed a hand over his face. "I guess I did," he said. He peered into the pile of furs that used to be his outdoor cloak, looking for the gray and white kitten. He finally found her curled into a ball, sleeping, but not at all well, it looked like. He reached out and gently stroked the fur on her head. "She still feels cold."

Thor sat down next to him, crossing his legs underneath him. "Perhaps she is sick," he suggested. "Brother, you shouldn't get too attached until we know she will survive."

"I know," Loki said quietly, still stroking the kitten's fur. "But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to help her."

"You're already attached," Thor said, watching him with a sad smile that Loki caught out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know," Loki said. "I am invested, at any rate."

Thor sighed, reaching out and placing his hand on Loki's shoulder. "You're going to cry when she doesn't make it."

"I will not," Loki protested half-heartedly.

"You will," Thor said. "And I will be there as a shoulder to do it on."

Loki took a deep breath, then looked at his brother. "As long as you don't tell anyone."

Thor gave him a faint smile. "I wouldn't dream of it." He patted Loki's shoulder before dropping his hand. "You're going to sleep out here, even if I try to bodily drag you back to your bed, aren't you?"

Loki nodded. "I am. You can go back to bed, I'll keep quiet."

"I'll stay here with you," Thor said, then stood. "However, I'm getting my pillow. You can lay your head on the floor if you want."

While Thor left the room to his bedroom, Loki laid back down, the kitten and furs between himself and the fireplace, and reached out and stroked the kitten's fur gently while he waited for his brother, or sleep, whichever managed to reach him first.

Sleep won, Loki already out before his brother returned with his pillow. He awoke to a servant tending to the fire. Thor snored quietly at his feet. The servant apologized for waking him, then left the room once the fire was properly roaring. He almost barely noted the event if he hadn't paused to check on the kitten.

She hadn't made it.

He sat up, hugging his knees as his eyes grew wet. His brother was right, he'd gotten attached, had hoped that care and warmth would let the animal thrive, but she'd just been sick, and all he'd succeeded in doing was giving her a warm place and loving hands to die in.

"Brother?"

Thor's voice again jolted him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hide the tears. "Go back to sleep, Brother," he said with a thick voice.

Thor sat up and moved beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders. "I am sorry," he said softly. "Don't worry, your grief is safe with me." Loki leaned his head against his brother's shoulder and wept silently. Thor sighed against him. "You were always too soft-hearted for your own good."

Loki elbowed him half-heartedly. "Take that back," he said, rubbing his eyes furiously to dry the tears.

"I cannot change the truth, Brother," Thor said. "And you know it is truth. But it is our truth, and I'll not share it with anyone you do not want to know."

Thor called in servants to take the kitten and the soiled furs away. Loki sat numbly, staring at the fire, eyes sore from crying. Once the furs and kitten were gone, Thor sat back down next to him. "Are you going to be okay?"

Loki nodded. "I will be fine." He looked at his brother. "You don't think me weak for mourning?"

Thor shook his head. "Mourning takes strength, Brother," he said. "To care deeply about something, no matter how small that is what it is to be strong. I was not as attached as you were, but I mourn her loss, as well. If she'd thrived under your care, she would've made a fine companion. But you did what you could. She went in a warm place, loved and protected, rather than abandoned and freezing by the river."

Loki looked over at him with a small smile. "You'll make a good ruler some day. Assuming you ever get ahold of your temper."

Thor scowled. "I do not have a bad temper."

"You do," Loki said. "But that's okay, everyone loves you for it."

"Even you?" Thor asked with a cocky smile.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Even me," he said. "And never doubt that, even when I think you're being a giant jerk."

Thor looked offended. "I am never a big jerk."

"Liar."

Thor grumbled. "You can be, too, with your little pranks."

"Those?" Loki grinned. "Merely payback to you. Or fun. Whichever suits my purpose at the time."

"Big jerk," Thor retorted. Then his scowl faded to a sympathetic smile. "Are you feeling any better, Brother?"

Loki considered a moment, then nodded. "If you don't mind, however, I think I'll stay out here for tonight."

"Then I will stay with you," Thor said. He got up and headed back into Loki's room. Loki watched him go, frowning in bewilderment. What the hell was his brother doing in his room?

Thor returned a minute later with Loki's pillow and a couple blankets. "Here," he said, tossing down Loki's pillow onto his head. "You'll not sleep with your head on the floor like a heathen. We're civilized people here." He dropped one of the blankets on top of Loki, then settled back down on his own pillow by Loki's feet and draped the other blanket on top of himself. "Now sleep, Brother. You've earned it."

Loki curled up under his blanket, watching the fire. "Thank you, Brother," he said.

Thor closed his eyes. "It's what I'm here for." A few minutes later, Loki heard Thor's quiet snoring. He huddled down under the blanket, watching the fire for a bit longer, before drifting off himself.


End file.
